I don’t think those posts or threads accomplish much more than to give the member a backlink. So, let's do something different here. My challenge to you is to ask you to post a constructive backlink building tip that might actually help someone build a stronger link profile.

I double dare you to offer something that no one else has mentioned in this thread and to provide enough detail to make it a valuable tip. Pretend you really want to help someone understand how to get quality backlinks. It might take more than a line or two, but I know you can do it, even if you have to go and Google “backlinks tips” and read a couple of posts elsewhere. (No cutting and pasting, though. Put it in your own words.)

Fresh, new ideas will get rep points, and for really good ones I will beg other mods to also award some green. It does not have to be about ‘followed’ links.

Here’s a couple to get you started:

1. Trade articles with other webmasters. Set up some Google Alerts with the keyword phrases for your niche. Read their websites and look for what they are missing. Write a short article and send it to them, offering to place a similar article of theirs on your site.

2. Stop worrying about whether links are followed when blog commenting or posting in forums. Instead, concentrate on relevance and make sure you provide quality information. If you help others, you will attract the interest of quality webmasters. If you truly have something to say, people will click on your signature links to get to know more about you. You’ll gain traffic and possibly more links.
Your turn now.

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Utilize your offline friendships and professional relationships to find some link buddies! Also, learn what the absolute selling point is of your site or offline services. Too many people jump right in and start building links the easiest way they know how. Sometimes a little sweat and elbow grease will get you much further than building links on blog comments, article directories, or social bookmarks. Google undoubtedly understands and utilizes the difficulty aspect and anywhere you can easily build yourself a link isn't going to count as much as a legit business-related site with very few outbound links.

Bigger companies really have an edge because they utilize every site they can to link up with. A plant can use distributors, big manufacturers can use retailers, and so on. These links matter folks and a blog comment or 700 sure seems easiest right away, but further down the road it will be clear that quality back links are the kind you have to connect with someone to obtain, or, create something that people link to or use on their own sites.

I know this isn't the most descriptive post ever, but it's a proven method that a lot of people overlook. It just varies so much from industry to industry so hopefully the examples above help. It's important to capitalize on your strengths rather than promote blindly.

Utilize your offline friendships and professional relationships to find some link buddies! Also, learn what the absolute selling point is of your site or offline services. Too many people jump right in and start building links the easiest way they know how. Sometimes a little sweat and elbow grease will get you much further than building links on blog comments, article directories, or social bookmarks. Google undoubtedly understands and utilizes the difficulty aspect and anywhere you can easily build yourself a link isn't going to count as much as a legit business-related site with very few outbound links.

This is a really important tip. To expand on it further, like with any friendship it is a two-way street. You cannot expect to get a network of friends who will willingly promote your site/blog/forum/art-gallery/etc. unless you are also willing to spend time doing the same for them.

Too often link building is done in a lazy and haphazard way and it is why people continually complain that their efforts are going unnoticed. When you truly grasp each concept and give it the time and attention it deserves you will be rewarded with the corresponding results.

Building a network of friends isn't easy. You don't just add tens-of-thousands of random people to your twitter profile, then set your tweets to auto and promote the hell out of yourself and expect to get noticed. Someone with 100 followers who are genuinely following them because they are interested in what they have to say and who they are is going to be far more successful.

Take the time to talk to and get to know people in your social network who are related to your area of interest. You might even make some genuine lifelong friends (go on I dare you). Share ideas, help each other market, and create real business relationships that get you and your friends ahead.

You have to push each other to achieve. Adding a reciprocal link to each others sites is going to do nothing to promote your business. You need to actively promote each other, not just add passive links and hope that people click on them.

The reason why link building almost always fails, is because people just "build links". When you have a social network, you aren't just building links, you are promoting and sharing with friends, and getting information across to people that matter. Yes, you are linking to people, but you are doing it because you want to, not because it is work. That's the difference.

When you descend into that "dang I'm spending 2 hours today building another 10 links" mindset --- you've failed.

Think about it, if you click a link somewhere and the site you arrive at is awfull or useless to you, you leave, right? Well, the same thing can happen to your site.

Build up your content with information and other "stuff" your target audience wants to see before working on any link building endeavours. This includes getting yourself in the search results for the topics that your target audience are looking for.

This strategy works 2 ways:
1. You get visitors from the search results and if your site is fantastic they start spreading the word on the social networks, write an article or post about your site or link to you in their resources, sites to visit, blogroll or wherever they put links to sites they think their visitors would like. These are natural links that all you had to do was do a great job with your site.

2. When you decide to actively do some link building through the usual avenues where your target audience is, they have something fantastic to see and then the latter part of the cycle in point 1 starts again.

Getting a link or mention from a buddy (as described above by Dan and Brad) who has an established site which is crawled by the search bots to get the ball rolling certainly helps. But, your buddy isn't going to link to you unless you have a well prepared site for them to give you a referral for.

So many just into link building right off the bat, wasting time and money, without thinking about what the visitors are going to see on the site and what is going to get them to stay and cruise around a bit.

When building a link choose or submit tags wisely so that your single link can display in several pages (e.g. Technology, Software, Designing). That way your link will be crawled from more than one different pages. Sometimes it may happen that your page (where link lies) is not crawled, but the tagged page is crawled because that page is updated frequently and crawling ratio is also high of that page. And those kind of pages are sometimes listed in the backlinks and SERP by SE.

Before you "build" another link, you might want to give some thought to your site's link profile. The more variety, the more “organic” it looks -- that is, the more likely it looks natural to the search engines.

Do most of your links to your home page use the same anchor text? A variety is natural.

What percentage of your IBLs (inbound links) are to your home page? It’s natural for most directory links to come to your home page, but true “citations” will most often go to internal pages. Strive for an ever increasing number of “deep links.”

Are most of your links reciprocals? Despite what some people say, there is nothing wrong with relevant reciprocal links (emphasis on relevant).

Where are your backlinks placed? The footer or side bar? In a list of links? Lists can look very like link farms and footer and sidebar links are often paid links. Try to have as many “contextual” links that are part of content as possible.

With more information in hand about the links you have, you can be more effective in your strategy to acquire natural looking IBLs.

One of the best link building tools that I have found has been through my e-commerce sites. It goes to building the relationships with the people you do business with. Here is my approach. Most online E-commerce businesses have suppliers, suppliers have manufacturers and other business associates. I will use one of my sites as an example: Marine parts, I have numerous wholesale suppliers. Most have links to the product manufacturers. I have to go to manufacturers for permission to use images, I also ask for links to specifications. The manufacturers I have are reputable and have had an internet presence for quite a while. Examples would be Teleflex, Morse controls, OMC, Mercruiser...all well known and reputable. My suppliers also have links to images. rather than swelling my website with image data, if, a supplier will allow me I use the link data. I happened to stumble onto this because on one supplier I had overlooked removing links and my ranking had shot up, I performed an analysis of my site and discovered all of the links were present, so I checked with the supplier and they said of course that's what the link's are there for, if you succeed we succeed.

When building up your link you must keep in mind the overall concept about LinkBuilding which is really all about "awareness", Climbing the ranks of search engines to have your website(s) listed above the rest. By marketing your Product/Service you need to keep a direct connection with your target audience in whatever industry it is that you doing business.

Posting everywhere & anywhere just to spam your website to boost your rank is NOT the best idea. Dont attack every blog, or article you see just to gain rank and afew extra hits, only thing you acheive there is the awareness by everyone else your apart of the crowd which is expendable just like the websites possible future. Business is tough & so is running a website, but if you use all the possible resources available to you (alot can be learned free) than you can have the advantage that your competitors may not already.

I see alot of people at this board give the same advice, and Im part of that group as well since I like to recommend SN's, Blogs, Articles so im not different, but the biggest advice is do what you do best & do it well!!!. Instead of spamming or find tons & tons of blogs to post/get backlinks try other useful tatics.

A. Start Sponsorship programs
- Give back to your industry
- Give back to your audience
- Support someone else's casue or project.
(a helping hand goes along way, and those who appreaite it may become your future customers, to get you need to give & Sponsoring has always helped me gained awareness, I never lose even if I come out $0, Its Networking. If you sponsor someone online you get the banner on the site as Sponsored By: so it works)

B. Affilations- Join your Industies Circle, Find others who have the same concept/business/goals as you. The more affilates who work together to bring "MORE" business & "MORE" profits to the INDUSTRY means there is "MORE" money/percentage to share
- Instead of posting just on blogs & articles, take advantage of any affilate, refferel ect programs sites may have to offer.

C. Networking
- To me this is the biggest key of all. Meet people, discuss topics, help & offer useful tips/advice. People will have awareness that your someone who they can goto if they need to. Bottom line is if your running a site/business by yourself, if your doing everything then odd's is when your gone then your business is gone. Look at networking as being your "freelance employees/advertisers" spreading the word getting you attention while your away.

My tips arnt for getting you those 1000 backlinks in a week, My tips are for those backlinks of people & other sites that SUPPORT you & will continue to do so as time goes on. Marketing your Industry before you market yourself, the more people who come the more profits to share later!

Allowing people to have the option to "Affilate Link" With you is a good little backlink tip too. Gives members a way to show they support you & also gives you a linkback in return This always is a good option!

Some may not like this advice or overview, but bottom line is you only get what you deserve. Its not easy to be the best, be active, making tons of money, manage websites, its just not easy. You need to do things & do them the right way or prepare for a struggle for gaining business & profits with your competitors. Every day when 1 business goes down in your industry another 10 come to replace it.

If you need advice or help to questions ASK, Dont forget that ever! Also dont forget that when it comes time that you ran out of your own personal resources to do what you need done, is to PAY someone who can do what you need done.

But remember to know who your doing business with before you do pay, at the end of the day you get what you paid for. In this case, your site gets what its worth. Spam bogus links/comments everywhere then it's most possible thats a where your website is headed. Dont be scared to ask for help, but also be prepared to Pay for help & advertising, you can get the results your looking for even with a small budget, just take advantage of the resources that are available to you!

Some may not like this advice or overview, but bottom line is you only get what you deserve. Its not easy to be the best, be active, making tons of money, manage websites, its just not easy. You need to do things & do them the right way or prepare for a struggle for gaining business & profits with your competitors. Every day when 1 business goes down in your industry another 10 come to replace it.

If you need advice or help to questions ASK, Dont forget that ever! Also dont forget that when it comes time that you ran out of your own personal resources to do what you need done, is to PAY someone who can do what you need done.

Jay~

Rack...this is a great post, folks basically get out what they put into it. I could not resist commenting on it.

Hope others will consider some if not all what I wrote & the other aboves me. Some people dont understand that less is sometimes better, or the fact to get something you have to give. Everyone wants to make there business better, and everyone wants to make big bucks, so it's up to those who are willing to do what it takes & put the peices together on how they best fit for them. Nothings free or guarenteed easy just stick to what you do best & prepare for trial/error experiences. Someone who never makes mistakes, never learns anything!

Asking for help is always a POSITIVE thing! All information is good information just depends on what you do with the resources available to you

& your 100% right about folks basically get out what they put into it, Its pretty much flat-out rude when people look for backdoors, quick2boost & little-effort websites & webmasters looking for blogs ect to spam, to those of us who spent 1,000s of hours & cash and many days/nights working, learning, trying these concepts we've all learned. What works for one person may not work for another, but try your best & thats all anyone can ask! which means you don't need to ride EVERYONE else's best "(those who worked their ass of building those High Ranked website blogs)" just for you to trashem and gain rank. Gain Respect, Gain Following, Gain Awareness & guarenteed you'll gain business & profits.

Hope others will consider some if not all what I wrote & the other aboves me. Some people dont understand that less is sometimes better, or the fact to get something you have to give. Everyone wants to make there business better, and everyone wants to make big bucks, so it's up to those who are willing to do what it takes & put the peices together on how they best fit for them. Nothings free or guarenteed easy just stick to what you do best & prepare for trial/error experiences. Someone who never makes mistakes, never learns anything!

Jay~

Again Awesome job... many people jump into an internet business, only to find out in 3 to 6 months it is not what they thought. The gold is not falling from the sky, It actually requires work, not pushing a few buttons and the PC does the work for you. More people need to know the "truth" from folks like you who do not paint a pretty picture, do not sugar coat it, but delineate the realities of the business. (ps added you to list).
Regards (BC) Devonshire

You should try to get your website into the good ‘neighbourhoods’ of your industry. Try and get links from the neighbourhoods at the top of Google for your key phrases after all Google likes these sites enough to rank them! Find that circle of sites where all the big boys in your industry link to and are linked from and get involved. Don’t worry too much about “theme” of websites linking to you though – as this is well, a bit, unproven. Good for traffic though!

For me the biggest backlink tip I have is to find as many newer blogs to comment on because you just never know when if they will go from nofollow to dofollow and what if one of those newer blogs turns out to be the next problogger.net or shoemoney.com?

And besides the chance on you getting a first comment is pretty high on those blogs.

It does make sense to forget the nofollow, dofollow questions, and concentrate purely on marketing your website. If you are found to be an authority in your niche, people are definitely going to be intersted in following you. They will follow your link (be it nofollow or dofollow which is of no concern to them), might read up your articles blogs or whatever stuff you have up there, or even subscribe to your RSS. This is of course a long term strategy as it is going to take time to get yourself established and attract people to notice you and link to your stuffs.

It does make sense to forget the nofollow, dofollow questions, and concentrate purely on marketing your website. If you are found to be an authority in your niche, people are definitely going to be intersted in following you.

This is where I think a lot of people who are new to link building, marketing or even websites find the information they read so daunting. They are told they need to be an authority or create this great content, but they aren't told that in order for them to be considered authoritative they need to be recognised. In order to get recognised they need a strategy that puts their website in front of people's eyeballs (in addition to their website basically being the best in it's field for information).

People use the "authority" buzzword far too often, and I find it extremely irresponsible, because 99% of sites in their niche will never ever be considered an authority. You don't just gain this status, it is extremely difficult to be considered an authority.

It's a similar idea to people throwing around the word "quality" when it comes to directory listings and links. Almost no one knows what is considered quality when it comes to directories. For every person that understands the phrase I could point out 100 or even 1000 directory owners that don't understand it but use it on a daily basis to describe their "resource".

You don't get to call your site "quality", the same as you don't get to call it "authoritative". It gets judged by the internet populous, and they will decide whether it is quality or authoritative by giving it a link (their vote). Get enough links, from people that matter, and you'll gain those sought after acknowledgements.

We've all heard the content is king mantra a million times, and it is king, but if the king has no court (audience) then no matter how wise his counsel is, if only his jester hears it will it ever be considered authoritative?

It used to be that dropping links in the right places (well read blogs and forums) was enough. But the web is used differently in this day and age, so in order to market effectively a range of tactics needs to be employed, including passive link building and active social link networking...

I read a brilliant post yesterday regarding the subtle lies bloggers are told. One of the most prevalent points made in that post, is that it really doesn't matter how great your content is, if your design is lousy. So branding is extremely important when creating content, and seeking links. People will link to well designed sites that offer good information. However, if a site is designed badly, they might not even stick around to read what's been written. That's a fact, and one that shouldn't be ignored.

NB: I realise that I haven't included any link building information here, but what I want people to understand is that simply writing great content isn't enough. You need to be able to get that message out there, and that means marketing. So the "build great content and people will link to you" theory really needs to be put to bed. As Pushing Social says you need to give people "an experience" for them to link to you. That involves tying together great content with a brand, and then putting that "experience" in front of as many eyes as you can.

Ok mates, I am really lazy when it comes to writing so I will post here a link to an e-book I wrote times ago about a not well known though a bit laborous task to get some links on sites which usually don't accept links. Just download the PDF from one of my domains (guaranteed virus and promotion free).

I am actually testing out number three by signing up at HARO.com... I'll let you know if I get a link out of it.

Quote:

Number three. This is sort of an interesting one. Thanks to sites out there like HARO, which is Help a Reporter Out, and a few others, I think PR Newswire runs one as well, you can be a press source simply by combing through databases or lists of people who say, "Hey, I am a reporter in need of a story about a business that keeps dogs in their office and what the impact of having dogs around is. Can we interview you, show off your business?" Those stories when they get written about, they might appear in sources as big as "The New York Times" or as small as your local newspaper, but they appear online as well. When they do, that link will point back to your site giving you a link from a nice press resource, which is a great place to get a link.

And whether it's a ranking factor or not, it's a usability factor of the highest order, and that means it highly impacts the quality and quantity of *traffic* and conversions you will get from a link.

It is important, when speaking of the "relevance of a link," of make a distinction between a links role in PageRank vs ones Link Profile.

For the former, "relevance" is irrelevant; for the latter, it may be quite important.

Moreover, it must be understood that determining the "relevance" of is no mean feat," that that which a human sees a being relevant, such as links to resources that complement the source, may bear a relationship that is undetectable to an SE's indexing engine.

It is particularly important to remember that other sites link must be relevant to the content on your site or search engines like Google off your site through the link instead of starting a site more credible.

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Last edited by snakeair; 10-08-2010 at 10:53 PM.
Reason: use the signature feature

It is particularly important to remember that other sites link must be relevant to the content on your site or search engines like Google off your site through the link instead of starting a site more credible.

Please clarify your meaning.

If you refer to indexing, know that links, whether inbound or outbound, have no effect on the indexing of a resource.